click to enlargeFalls spilling into the Illinois and Michigan CanalLemont, IL

On the second I & M Canal photo group meet up, we traveled the canal towpath east from downtown Lemont, Illinois, about 1.5 miles to a small stream that emptied into the canal. I can't find the name of this stream, but I did find its source about 2 or 3 miles up stream.

The canal was cut through the limestone bedrock in this area, so at least the canal did not need to be lined with limestone! Lots of limestone quarries were located here, and have long since filled up with water, creating some very nice fishing holes.

click to enlargeRocky Shore of Consumer's QuarryLemont, Illinois

One can still see evidence of the quarries all along this part of the canal. The Great Lakes Quarries Recreational Area is a park created around these old quarries and the I & M Canal. It's a mix of nature, including a natural limestone fen (or wetland), the man made canal, and heavy industry along the Sanitary and Ship Canal just in the distance. A fen is very common, but limestone fen is a rare thing indeed. Water bubbles up from the shallow limestone bedrock in this area creating this unique habitat.

The colorful limestone cliffs line the banks of Rock Creek, part of the Kankakee River State Park in Illinois. This creek carved it's way through the limestone until it reached the Kankakee River. It's a bit difficult to walk along the bank of the creek without getting wet, and the main trail is at the top of the canyon, so you have to climb up and down the canyon walls to get from place to place. Rock climbing is not allowed, but obviously everyone does it.

There are plenty of breathtaking views of the creek from the top of the limestone cliffs, and the views aren't so bad once you get down into the canyon either!click to enlargeRock Creek Falls

The Rock Creek Falls cascade gently over a natural drop in elevation of the limestone. The falls can be seen from the top of the canyon some 50 feet above.

The art bug is really biting me. I hope it doesn't wear off too soon. It's been years since I actually sat down and painted, then I tried a watercolor of the Wind Point Lighthouse and now a week later, I decided to create one of the Michigan City, Indiana Lighthouse.

click to enlargeFinished PaintingWatercolor on paper.

Here's the painting with the reference photo (one I took a few months back).click to enlarge

I'm still trying to get used to painting with washes rather than opaque colors that hide what's underneath. It's an unpredictable medium to an extent, the colors blend the way they want to; the trick is to control it as best you can and use the nature of the paint and water to your advantage. They still control me most of the time, but I'm sneaking up on them.

It never fails, we seem to color way more eggs than we can eat! That's okay, it's all part of the East fun. We colored over six dozen eggs (probably more like 9 dozen!!) for Easter. That makes lots of egg salad, and deviled eggs for everyone at the beginning of this week!

Chris, Mike and Dan had a great time coloring the eggs, fingers, hands, faces, shirts, table and floor. Fortunately for us this year, they didn't really make a mess - they are getting older.

On an abandoned farm near Naperville, Illinois, a vine has worked its way under the metal band that holds together an old concrete stave silo. The meandering vines offset the perfect vertical and horizontal lines of the silo.

I'll bet it will be interesting to see when the foliage comes back in the spring.

The new shelter at 12th street beach was constructed in 2003, after Meigs Field was mysteriously closed in the middle of the night by the City of Chicago. This beach is small, but sits inside a relaxing little cove formed by Northernly Island where the Adler Planetarium is located. The Adler Planetarium is one of the few structures left from the 1933/34 Worlds' Fair.

Got the painting bug last weekend, so I started a watercolor painting of the Windpoint Lighthouse. I've never painted with watercolors before, so it took a lot of getting used to. I have to keep remembering to use light washes of color not bold globs like oils or acrylics. So every stroke I have to think through and build up from light to dark and front to back which is opposite of everything I've ever done before!

Here's the Windpoint Wisconsin lighthouse photo I used as a reference.Reference photo

A windy day on the shore of Lake Michigan combined with cold temperatures created a frozen wonderland near McCormick Place. The spray from the crashing waves froze on every item within 25 feet of the water.

click to enlarge

The ice was several inches thick in some spots, bending trees down to the ground.

The Chicago Harbor Light was built in 1893 and moved to the present location in 1917. It's a brick covered, metal structure, 82 feet off of Lake Michigan. The lighthouse uses a third order Fresnel lens and is an active navigational beacon.

The lighthouse if off limits to visitors, but can be seen from the Chicago lakefront, Navy Pier and by private boat.

After being sick for the past 9 days, I finally have something to post!

It was a cold and windy afternoon, but I was able to get over to the Lake Michigan shore to snap a few pictures. I was going through photo withdrawal!

This is the Chicago skyline as seen from the entrance to Montrose Harbor on Montrose Point, a few miles north of the Loop. This is a rather large area of lakefront that has a lot of beach, fishing areas and park. One of the best things is that parking is FREE! That's an unusual thing to find in the city.

The beacon pictured in the foreground marks the right side entrance to the harbor. A similar beacon with green stripes marks the left side. Red is always on the right of a channel when returning from a larger body of water, so it's pretty easy to determine what direction you're traveling on a stream if you remember "Red right returning."

About Tom

Environmental and landscape photographer Tom Gill captures the natural and man made wonders of the southeastern portion of Lake Michigan, particularly lighthouses, the National Lakeshore, barns, and small town nostalgia. Tom is a blogger on The Huffington Post, and has earned international recognition for his photography, with publication in the Huffington Post, the Daily Mail, the Australian, Melbourne and Victoria Herald Sun, Adelaide Now,Civil War Times, Weatherwise Magazine, Backpacker Magazine, American Motorcyclist, and other major newspapers and magazines. The Weather Channel, CNN, ABC,NBC, WGN news affiliates, and countless online media outlets have also featured his work. Tom holds a Fine Arts Degree in design from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and aside from photography, enjoys woodworking, sketching, painting, and hiking with his family.

To purchase prints of the photographs featured on Tom's blog, on his flickr pages, or on his Google + pages, contact the photographer directly at